Ottoman Tidbits

I read this Hourly History book on the Ottoman empire. The book felt like reading through Mughal history in India, constrained to an hour of reading (such a book would probably have been limited to Babur, Akbar, Aurungzeb, and fading away with Bahadur Shah Zafar with the rise of the British; with some tidbits like the Taj Mahal thrown in). Except that, unlike the Mughal era, a lot of the Sultans were short-lived, and so there was a lot of churn in policies and governance mechanisms. While not a very informative book (it has too much to cover), it’s enough to get the broad brushstrokes.

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One amusing tidbit went like this. When the empire was still small and growing, the Sultan Murad II felt he had secured the place with expansion and treaties. So he abdicated the throne in favour of his son, Mehmed II. Except the son was just 12 years old! The Sultan retired to “enjoy a lifestyle worthy of an ex-Sultan”. But, as would happen repeatedly, the areas to the west, being Christian, always feared the rise of a Muslim power so close to them. This time, they assembled a crusader army petitioned for by Venice and Hungary. Mehmed II got his own army ready to face the threat, but he wasn’t naïve.

“He recognized the importance of the coming battle, and asked his father, Murad II, to return to the throne and lead the army.”

Murad, however, was enjoying the good life too much – he refused to return! Mehmed then sent him a letter:

“If you are the Sultan, come and lead your armies. If I am the Sultan, I hereby order you to come and lead my armies.”

Murad II was boxed in – he agreed to become the Sultan again and led the armies to victory. He would rule until his death, upon which his now 19 yo old would take the throne again.

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I had read that one of the reasons Japan fell to the West before the World Wars was that there were too many vested interests within Japan whose hold on power and influence would fade if the state modernized. The Samurai, for example, opposed the entry of firearms because it would erode their aura and power.

 

The Ottomans had a similar problem with their Janissaries, a “feared and effective fighting force” formed in the 1300’s. Then it became a parallel power-center, whose skills progressively were as much in politics as is in being a fighting machinery. When thwarted, they could (and did) depose the Sultan. Repeatedly.

“This led to the imposition of sultans who were good for the Janissary Corps, but not for the empire as a whole.”

Worse, as the importance and impact of artillery began to grow in Europe, the Janissaries opposed its introduction within the Ottoman Empire. For the same reason as the Samurai – artillery eroded their power within the empire.

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As the empire became powerful, guilds and groups within the empire became richer and influential. Sure, they brought in a lot of progress in technology. But when they felt threatened by a tech or idea from outside (i.e., Europe), they would oppose it. Like the calligraphers guild who opposed the entry of the printing press. Guilds who had become specialists in other tech would oppose the entry of any new tech from Europe.

 

As the Ottoman Empire began to turn its back on progress and new tech, it eventually led to the coinage of the term “Sick Man of Europe”.

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Ultimately then, the empire disintegrated and fell apart as much due to external threats (Europe on its West, Russia on its East), choosing the losing aside during the World War, as much due to its self-inflicted wounds from within (the Janissaries and the guilds).